HUNGERSTRIKE NEWS

Vol. 3 #26, August 11, 2013

Day 35 Countdown for Humane Conditions

Some California prisoners got good news on Friday: the Federal Communications Commission agreed to limit how much companies can charge for phone calls made from behind bars. But this welcome reform does not affect SHU prisoners. Why? Because SHU prisoners in California are not allowed to call home. Lack of family phone calls is one of the reasons why California’s SHU cells are characterized as solitary confinement – the harsh deprivation of family and social ties.

Prisoners in the SHU are not even allowed to write letters to their loved ones, if their loved ones are also incarcerated. The letters they are allowed to write are copied and scrutinized by gang investigators for evidence of gang involvement. And gang investigators find “gang involvement” everywhere they look – even in the drawings of a five year old girl who sends her artwork to her daddy. Imagine a little girl getting her drawing back from the prison because it is considered gang-related. Gang investigators will even reach out to family members and friends who write to SHU prisoners, warning them that they face possible investigation themselves merely for corresponding with a SHU prisoner.

SHU prisoners in long-term solitary confinement value their family relationships above all else. So that is what SHU prisons try to destroy. Consider this: a mother with two sons in prisons (one in general population and one in SHU) cannot write to both. Why? Because she knows that gang investigators will link her sons to each other through her address, thereby jeopardizing the son in general population with gang validation and placement in SHU.

This is the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment. How long would you tolerate these sorts of attacks on you and your family? Would you be driven to hunger strike because of these and other cruelties?

CDCR has created the conditions that drive prisoners to desperation. Whether it be a lonely suicide in an isolation cell or a united peaceful protest, the message is clear: SHU prisoners have been pushed beyond the limit of what human beings should have to bear. It is horrifying to witness CDCR’s response to the current hunger strike: crank up the cruelty and let them die.

Today is Day 35.

On behalf of the Mediation Team,Carol Strickman, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children, (510) 289-7225

SHU isolation cell to be installed on State Capitol South Steps Aug. 14

The Stop Mass Incarceration Network and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, in support of the California prison hunger strikers and their five demands, invite the public to visit an installation of a life-sized mock Security Housing Unit (SHU) cell on the California State Capitol South Steps in Sacramento.

The cell will be on display – and you can walk right in to see how it feels – from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14. A press conference, featuring Assemblymember and Public Safety Committee Chair Tom Ammiano, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, people formerly incarcerated in California Department of Corrections (CDCR) SHUs, SHU prisoners’ families, and other voices of support and conscience will be held at noon.

"My brother has been in Pelican Bay SHU for the last ten years. I'm here today to be the voice, not only for him, but for all of the prisoners who are suffering in the SHU and for all of the prisons in California. There are a lot of questions that I want answered. I want to know what our elected officials are going to do to change what's being done? Why is it 30 days later and still nothing has been done when the CDC agreed to part of the prisoners' demands? I want to know why my brother is tortured on a daily basis year after year. Why is he not fed correctly and why is he so pale and skinny? Why does my mom have to cry every time she goes to see him? Seeing everybody that has come out today just lights my fire, because I know that I am not alone and I can let him know that he is not alone."

October 5th: in Sacramento 12pm to 2pm CDCR Headquarters,1515 S St. More info call: 415-238-1801

Support the Prisoner Hunger Strike! Support the Five Demands!

All out to Sacramento!In SOLIDARITY, a group of us will be leaving Eureka on Tuesday night (10/4) to participate in the Oct.5th demo. We'll stay the night in Oakland and rideshare with Bay Area folks to Sacramento on Wednesday morning! We will return to Eureka on Wednesday night (10/5).

Sacramento Tues, August 23rd:

Legislative Hearing on Torture & the SHU at Pelican Bay.

Please join us and support a statewide mobilization to Sacramento on August 23rd for an informational legislative hearing held by the CA State Assembly's Public Safety Committee!

Support Statewide Mobilization to Sacramento August 23rd

Day of Action to Support the Hunger Strike & 5 Core Demands! Family and community members across the West Coast will mobilize to Sacramento for a rally and legislative hearing at the State Assembly. Rally starts at 11:30 am on the South Steps of the State Assembly Building. Hearing starts at 1:30 pm, room to be announced.

RIDES from East Bay: Meet at West Oakland BART, 9:30 am

Meeting at NOON in Sacramento at Freemont Park on 15th & Q

If you are in Humboldt or Del Norte County and want to go to Sacramento, please immediately contact Redwood Curtain CopWatch at 707-633-4493.

SUPPORT the HUNGERSTRIKERS!

On July 1st, prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (SHU) began an indefinite hunger strike to protest the conditions of their imprisonment. The UN has characterized their imprisonment as ‘inhumane and degrading’. At least 6,600 prisoners across 13 prisons in CA joined the hunger strike in solidarity with the demands from the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU). Thousands of people both inside and outside prison are supporting their struggle. But if demands are not met soon, people will begin to die….

Join the National Day of Action on Tuesday January 25, 2011

In December 2010, under the direction of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the FBI delivered nine new subpoenas in Chicago to anti-war and Palestine solidarity activists. Patrick Fitzgerald’s office is ordering the nine to appear at a Grand Jury in Chicago on January 25.